As Woody Turns 100, We Protest Too Little

[groovedaddy]

In October the Kennedy Center will throw a centennial party for Woody Guthrie, a star-studded concert with tickets topping out at $175. It will be America’s ultimate tribute to a beloved troubadour. “Through his unique music, words and style,” the Kennedy Center says, “Guthrie was able to bring attention and understanding to the critical issues of his day.”

Poor Woody. The life and music of America’s great hobo prophet, its Dust Bowl balladeer, boiled down to this: He brought attention to the critical issues of his day.

Maybe that’s what happens to dissidents who are dead long enough. They are reborn for folk tales and children’s books and PBS pledge drives. They become safe enough for the Postal Service. “For a man who fought all his life against being respectable, this comes as a stunning defeat,” Arlo Guthrie said in 1998, when his father was put on a 32-cent stamp.

Will Kaufman’s book “Woody Guthrie, American Radical” tried to set the record straight last year. The sentimental softening and warping of Woody’s reputation began early, even as he was dying, in the 1960s. But under the saintly folk hero has always been an angry vigilante — a fascist-hating, Communist-sympathizing rabble-rouser who liked to eviscerate his targets, sometimes with violent imagery. He was a man of many contradictions, but he was always against the rich and on the side of the oppressed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/as-woody-guthrie-turns-100-we-protest-too-little.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120819

[Hoyt]

1. Line from Woody's "Pretty Boy Floyd" -- "Some will rob you with a 6 gun, some with a fountain pen."

Pretty Boy Floyd
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.

It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
Along the river shore,
Hiding on the river bottom
And he never come back no more.

Yes, he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

But a many a starvin' farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.

Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand-dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:

"Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief."

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

© Copyright 1958 (renewed) by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.

[earthside]

2. Do we protest at all?

Writing posts, signing on-line petitions and putting clever graphic pictures on Facebook is not protesting ... but let's face it, that's what counts as 'involved' nowa'days of most folks.

I've been listening a lot to Woody Guthrie recently; his 'protest' music is modest while going right to the heart of the problems. Woody doesn't scream or use profanity, his tunes and lyrics are approachable, but he says simply what needs to be said.

What I really find refreshing in Guthrie these days is his praise for unionism, how we all have to get together to fight for what we deserve -- this is a message the 'Occupy' movement could learn from -- we do need to be organized and know what we want.

Guthrie had a clarity of vision about what this country needed to be like to benefit the poor and working people and, I believe, he and others like Cisco Houston and Will Geer saw their part of the job as articulating that message and inspiring folks to do the right things.

It looks to me like the vast majority of Americans in 2012 cannot be nudged out of their comfort zone, even as they are treated more and more like cattle by the power elite. In desperation most Americans will pinch every penny to keep their 4x4 pick-up truck, their four dogs, their motorcycles, their Nintendo ... because to admit that they really cannot afford these symbols of middle class 'success' anymore is to have to see their country as totally screwed-up and corrupt.

The sad part is that by giving in to the illusion of middle class prosperity by buying on credit, ignoring the news, reveling in Repuglican hate and still believing that the rich are examples of the 'American dream' that they are suppose to aspire to ... well, they're going to get exactly the kind of economic depression that created Woody Guthrie's art.

[cyberswede]

3. Thanks for posting!

K & R for my favorite "fascist-hating, Communist-sympathizing rabble-rouser!"